Romain Gavras Fights Back Against AI Copies of "Storm"

Director Romain Gavras has condemned the wave of AI recreations of "Storm," his short film with Yung Lean's audiovisual project Gener8ion, telling Vulture the copies "made me sad for all the people who put in so much work on our video."

The imitations began circulating after the song's MTV VMAs performance. Anonymous users fed the film through AI tools and replaced Yung Lean and his crew of young male dancers with dogs, babies, grandmothers, Elon Musk, Jeffrey Epstein, and Hitler.

The original was anything but cheap to make in effort, whatever it cost in money. Gavras told Vulture the budget was "very, very, very, very low," and he worked for free. Dancers were selected through a two-month casting search. They rehearsed for three days with choreographer Damien Jalet. Gavras needed about 15 attempts to capture the unbroken take, shot on 16-mm film.

What does this change for the film?

Gavras was blunt about the damage. "A trend like this can make even good work look lame," he said. "Part of me wanted to quit filmmaking, move back to Greece, and become an olive farmer."

He emphasized that he never intended "Storm" as a commentary on AI. Instead, he felt AI companies treated the film's practical effects as a dare. "The tech people were like, 'Oh yeah? AI could never?' Then they started replicating it."

Gavras is now exploring legal avenues to stop the copies, though he acknowledged the logistics of suing multitudes of anonymous users are difficult. A few AI companies approached him about licensing the film. He declined. "There's an economic model coming that we didn't want to be a part of," he said.

Why the VMAs performance happened

The AI copies partly motivated Gavras to stage "Storm" live at the MTV VMAs, where the film earned four nominations. He saw the broadcast as a chance to demonstrate what the technology still cannot reproduce.

"They're missing the swagger of Yung Lean," Gavras said. "He looks like a dangerous baby. There's something in the imperfection of humanity, and the interior life of someone who dances or even someone who just smokes a cigarette, that's not quite there yet. But who the fuck knows what will happen in a year."

His closing remark points to the open question hanging over the dispute: whether the human texture Gavras defends will remain beyond AI's reach, or whether a year of rapid development will close the gap — and whether licensing refusals and lawsuits can hold the line in the meantime.

By Marcus Bennett